Content wars: Apple goes shopping in Hollywood

Oprah: Bringing her fans to Apple

Chris Joseph/i-Images/Eyevine/Redux, Ted Chin

“We still don’t know what Apple’s TV plans are, but we do know Apple wants us to know it is serious about its TV plans,” said Peter Kafka in Recode.net. The computing giant recently unveiled a multiyear partnership with Oprah Winfrey for an undisclosed sum, the latest in a “flurry of announcements” on new video projects with A-list talent, including Reese Witherspoon, Steven Spielberg, and the producers behind Sesame Street. What Apple hasn’t done so far is explain “what it plans to do with all the stuff it is making.” If, as some suspect, it’s launching its own stand-alone streaming platform, the company has “yet to acquire a library of content to backstop the new stuff.” This Oprah deal signals that the Big Tech–Hollywood “content wars” are really heating up, said Dylan Byers in CNN.com. Apple is racing against Netflix and Amazon to sign producers, showrunners, and performers, “and paying unprecedented sums to do so.” In the past year, Netflix has announced deals with producers Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy, and with Barack and Michelle Obama, while Amazon has signed Jordan Peele and Nicole Kidman. The partnerships are “radically changing the entertainment business and forcing traditional studios to pay more for top talent.”

“Apple clearly seems to be following a path laid by Netflix, Amazon Video, and Hulu,” said Jefferson Graham in USA Today. All three “credit original content” for vastly growing their subscriber bases. Netflix has an enormous content head start, however; by the end of 2018, it will have nearly 1,000 original titles in its library. And so far, Apple’s strike rate is poor—its first two original series, Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke, which were packaged with Apple Music, “have not fared well.” Crafting entertaining programs has thrust Apple “far from its Silicon Valley comfort zone,” said John Koblin in The New York Times. “There is a difference between making successful products and creating hit shows—a lesson learned the hard way by Microsoft and Yahoo, which not long ago had big plans for original programming, only to abandon them.” But Apple seems committed: Despite initially telling producers it would spend about $1 billion for original shows, it’s increasingly clear “the company will blow well past that figure.”

“Even Oprah can’t solve Apple’s entertainment riddle,” said Shira Ovide in Bloomberg.com. In making “its zillionth attempt” to reduce its reliance on iPhone sales, Apple seems to be doing little more than cobbling together “a collection of expensive web videos.” The people making programs for the company don’t know “where or how” potential viewers will eventually see their shows. Apple can afford to experiment—but not forever and not without a more focused mission. “There is simply too much competition for consumers’ time and wallets.”